Minister: More work to be done to save the Great Barrier Reef

Dr Steven Miles

This week, some of the world's leading news organisations are visiting Queensland to investigate Australia's plans to save the Great Barrier Reef. It is a sign of the growing and welcome international attention being given to this natural wonder, and the efforts underway to ensure its survival.

Six weeks ago it looked almost certain the World Heritage Committee would officially list the Reef as "in danger" at its meeting in June.

The Great Barrier Reef is home to more than 1500 species of tropical fish.

However, the new government has had some quick wins. We've helped bolster Australia's chances of avoiding this embarrassing and potentially very costly international judgement.

We've already won agreement from the Federal Government to include Queensland's new approach in the Reef 2050 Long Term Sustainability Plan that Australia will present to UNESCO's World Heritage Committee.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk last week announced a new approach to the expansion of the port at Abbot Point that will ban any dumping of capital dredge spoil in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area, or in an environmentally sensitive onshore location.

The revised approach, agreed to by the two major project proponents, requires the dredge spoil to be held on land, away from the Reef and wetlands, at an industrial site adjacent to the existing port terminal. The site was previously reserved for a possible port terminal, but those proposals were shelved some time ago. It was already prepared for industrial use and therefore has no environmental value.

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The Great Barrier Reef is a living wonder. The Caley Valley wetlands at Abbot Point are also an incredibly valuable wildlife habitat. As the first ever Minister with a dedicated responsibility for the Great Barrier Reef, I am proud to have been part of protecting both.

Securing a new approach that protects the Reef while allowing the port expansion will unlock vital opportunities for Queensland's economic future. It has been delayed for years by environmental concerns and legal proceedings to protect the Reef from the threat of dumping in the World Heritage Area. That delay has cost thousands of jobs.

The former government's insistence on having it all their own way stopped them from taking the necessary balanced approach and from finding a solution that was staring them in the face. The Newman Government could have delivered the port solution if it were not for their own belligerence.

Even odder is that it was not either of the two project proponents or even the Ports Corporation who proposed the port expansion and dumping on the Reef in the first place. It was former deputy premier Jeff Seeney who chose to be the applicant, even though the State's decision-maker on the project, the Coordinator-General, reported directly to him.

This outrageous decision destroyed any prospect of a balanced approach that could have supported economic growth while protecting our precious environment.

Many credible environment organisations have embraced the intervention on Abbot Point.

For example, WWF-Australia Reef campaigner Louise Matthiesson said: "This shows the Government is listening to people who care about the Reef and the important coastal wetlands that are precious habitats and act as filters to protect the Reef. The new Queensland Government is to be commended for following through on its election promise to rule out dumping on the wetlands and to find an alternative location for the sludge."

As Minister for the Great Barrier Reef, and a committed environmentalist, I know that even more action is needed to save the Reef. One of the advantages of the increased national and international attention on threats to the Reef has been renewed public discussion about the need for action on climate change, and what it will take to make a meaningful impact on global emissions levels.

Blocking the expansion of a single port will only lead to demand for more ports along the Reef coastline, with more dredging and more dangerous shipping channels through the Reef.

I believe the only and best way to achieve effective action on climate change is to establish the conditions that will reduce the demand for ports in the first place: an ambitious binding global treaty, with national targets embedded in legislation and implemented via an emissions trading scheme.

What we have done by moving swiftly to ban offshore dumping and implement our other policies to save the Great Barrier Reef, is to give Australia the best possible chance of avoiding the international embarrassment of an "in danger" listing from UNESCO.

It also puts us firmly on the path to making sure the Reef is not actually "in danger" – and that is something the previous LNP government showed it was incapable of doing.

Dr Steven Miles is Minister for National Parks and the Great Barrier Reef